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DOS 8


strekship

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With DOS 7 it was easy, but with the Me version Microsoft went out of their way to hide it and cripple it's functions. You can create a Windows Me Emergency Boot Disk and delete everything on it except io.sys and command.com. Then copy what files you can fit on it from the Windows/Command folder. You can use this disk to boot into real mode DOS. You'll only be able to boot from this disk though as you can no longer use it to make the hard disk bootable:

Although the WinMe Startup Disk still includes the FORMAT and SYS commands, you will receive the following notices when trying to use FORMAT C: /S or SYS C: "Microsoft Windows no longer supports the FORMAT /s command" or "Cannot find the system files in the standard locations on drive c:. SYS can only be used on drive c: to attempt repair of an already existing installation of Windows. Use Windows SETUP (Distribution CD) to make drive c: bootable".

I suppose you could install Windows Me, install the real mode DOS patch, and then delete everything on the hard drive except the startup files and commands. Seems like that would be a lot of work for little benefit though. Any particular reason you want a standalone 8.0 version? I don't really know of any advantages it has over the 7.x version from Windows 98.

By the way, if I misunderstood your post and all you want to do is add real mode DOS support back into Windows Me you can do so with this patch:

http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/

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For a standalone installation of MS-DOS 7.1 on a formatted hard drive (FAT16 or FAT32):

(1) Start the computer from your Windows 98 startup disk and at the prompt run the command "SYS C:" to make the hard disk bootable.

(2) Create a new directory named C:\DOS and copy to it the DOS commands from your Windows 98 command folder (C:\Windows\Command). If you do not currently have a Windows 98 installation most of the files will also be on your startup disk and on the RAM drive it should create.

(3) Locate the OLDMSDOS directory on your Windows 98 CD-ROM and copy the contents of it to the C:\DOS folder as well. If you want the MS-DOS shell you can get it from the MS-DOS 6.22 supplemental which is free from Microsoft.

(4) In the root directory of C:\ create your autoexec.bat and config.sys files. Add C:\DOS to your path statement. If you have a CD-ROM drive you can find the file oakcdrom.sys on the Windows 98 startup disk. This should work with most ATAPI CD-ROM drives. MSCDEX.exe should be in your new DOS folder at this point. You can download a mouse driver from Microsoft or find a third party driver.

(5) Finally add your own DOS applications just as you would with a normal retail install of MS-DOS. If you are using FAT32 be careful about using older DOS utilities since they can ruin your file system. If you want a more complete DOS and still be kind of up to date you might want to look into IBM PC-DOS 2000 or DR-DOS 7.02

I think that's about it, unless I've forgotten anything. If you need help with anything such as installing a DOS CD-ROM driver just post back again.

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  • 4 years later...

Some features of MS-DOS 8.0

Microsoft MS-DOS 8.0 subset is included with 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista as MS-DOS startup disk

To remove the functionality restrictions of sys.com 8.0 by using sys.com version 7.10 is included in Windows 98SE and put it to the table version setver.exe(In DOS prompt setver.exe sys.com 7.10)

Extract setver.exe from Windows ME cabs, add line in config.sys

device = setver.exe

Patched FORMAT.COM: Option /Q (QuickFormat) now can be used to format floppies and hard disks quickly even if they're never been formatted before MS-DOS version check has been removed

Fdisk.exe Unable to Partition Drives Larger Than 512 Gigabytes

Edited by _Smoker
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